This thesis involves the experimental testing of a bluff body with a blunt base to evaluate the effectiveness of end-plate tabs in reducing drag. The bluff body is fitted with interchangeable end plates; one plate is flush with the rest of the exterior and the other plate has small tabs protruding perpendicularly into the flow. The body is tested in the Cal Poly 3ft x 4ft low speed wind tunnel. Testing is conducted in three phases. The first phase was the hot-wire measurement of streamwise velocity of the near wake behind the bluff body. An IFA300 thermal anemometry system with a hot-wire probe placed behind the model measures the wake velocity fluctuations. The power spectral density on the model without tabs shows large spikes at Strouhal numbers of 0.266, 0.300, and 0.287 at corresponding Re = 41,400, 82,800, 124,200 where vortex shedding occurs. The model with tabs shows no such peaks in power and therefore has attenuated vortex generation in the wake flow at that location. The second phase of testing was pressure testing the model through the use of pressure ports on the exterior of the bluff body. A Scanivalve pressure transducer measured multiple ports almost simultaneously through tubing that was connected to the model internally and routed through the model’s strut mount and outside of the wind tunnel. This pressure testing shows that the model with tabs is able to achieve up to 36% increase in Cp at Reh = 41,400 on the base region of the bluff body and no negative pressure spikes that occur as a result of vortex shedding. The last phase of testing is the measurement of total drag on the model through a sting balance mount. This testing shows that the drag on the model is reduced by 14% at Re = 41,400. However it also shows that as velocity increased, the drag reduction is reduced and ultimately negated at Re = 124,200 with no drag loss at all. The addition of tabs as a passive flow control device did eliminate vortex shedding and alter the base pressure of the bluff body. This particular model however showed no reduction in total drag on the model at high Reynolds numbers higher than 124,000. Further study is necessary to isolate the exact geometry and flow velocities that should be able to produce more favorable drag results for a bluff body with this type of passive flow control device.

We investigate the dynamics of spontaneous jumps of water drops from electrically charged superhydrophobic dielectric substrates during a sudden step reduction in gravity level. In the brief free-fall environment of a drop tower, with a non-homogeneous external electric field arising due to dielectric surface charges (with surface potentials 0.4-1.8 kV), body forces acting on the jumped drops are primarily supplied by polarization stress and Coulombic attraction instead of gravity. This electric body force leads to a drop bouncing behavior similar to well-known phenomena in 1-g0, though occurring for much larger drops (~0.5 mL). We show a simple model for the phenomenon, its scaling, and asymptotic estimates for drop time of flight in two regimes: at short-times close to the substrate when drop inertia balances Coulombic force due to net free charge and image charges in the dielectric substrate and at long-times far from the substrate when drop inertia balances free charge Coulombic force and drag. The drop trajectories are controlled primarily by the dimensionless electrostatic Euler number Eu, which is a ratio of inertial to electrostatic forces. To experimentally determine values of Eu we conduct a series of drop tower experiments where we observe the effects of drop volume, net free charge, and static surface potential of the superhydrophobic substrate on drop trajectories. We use a direct search optimization to obtain a Maximum Likelihood Estimate for drop net charge, as we do not measure it directly in experiment. For φEu/8π > 1 drops escape the electric field, where φ is a drop to substrate aspect ratio. However, we do not observe any escapes in our dataset. With an eye towards engineering applications we consider the results in light of the so-called low-gravity phase separation problem with a worked example.

No description available.

Abstract The main objective of this thesis was to develop a method than can be used to approximate the pressure forces on air vehicles traveling at hypersonic speed (Mach number > 5). The aerodynamic forces such as lift and drag were calculated from the pressure values on the surface of the airplane. Pitching moment was also tabulated. This work was initiated based on the idea of developing a flow solver proficient and capable of providing aerodynamic data (lift and drag look-up tables) for hypersonic air vehicles that can be fed to a flight simulator (used by the Aviation Systems Department) at the University of Tennessee Space Institute. Several approximation methods are used to solve hypersonic such as shock expansion method. Based on different studies, Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) proved to produce very accurate results; however, it is a difficult technique to use. In this thesis work Newtonian Method was adopted as a technique to approximate the aerodynamic forces and hence the performance of hypersonic airplanes, therefore, a computer program (Hyper-N) has been developed for aerodynamic analysis of three dimensional geometries airplane. The program is designed to read in a previously configured list of plates and compute the aerodynamic forces and moments for hypersonic free stream conditions. Programming was completed using MatLab language. The results obtained from the Hyper-N program were for the experimental airplane X-43A which were found to match the results when the shock expansion method is used for the same airplane, [1]. Because of the difficulties involve in using CFD or the complete Navier Stocks equation to obtain the aerodynamic forces on bodies traveling at hypersonic speeds, the Newtonian method is considered to be the most efficient technique to use for preliminary evaluation of the performance of hypersonic airplanes. Modified Newtonian theory and the computational requirement of the code are described. A number of geometric configurations, including the X-43A (experimental hypersonic) airplane, are provided as examples of applications of the Hyper-N program.

The effects of an airfoil at different angles of attack and a circular cylindrical rod within the edge of the boundary layer flow at the leading edge of a cavity as a device for controlling the large pressure fluctuations (resonance tones) in the cavity were investigated. The airfoil results were compared with the rod in crossflow method positioned at the same leading edge location. The cavity used for testing corresponded to a length to depth ratio, L/D of 11.0/2.25 with a length to width ratio, L/W of 11.0/3.00 at a freestream Mach 1.84 flow. The study included measurements of dynamic pressure transducer output at 40 kHz and Frequency Spectra calculations, using Schlieren techniques for shock wave structures with velocity and vorticity fields obtained from PIV measurements. All airfoil configurations experienced flow separation to varying degrees. The negative 10 degree angle of attack configuration experienced the greatest amount of flow separation. All airfoil configurations provided varying degrees of cavity (resonant) tone suppression. Of the airfoil configurations, the negative 10 degree airfoil provided the best noise suppression with a 5 dB SPL reduction in broadband noise and a 9 dB reduction in peak amplitude for the 3rd resonant mode. Although all the airfoil configurations provided various levels of noise suppression, none of the configurations performed to the level of the rod in crossflow technique which provided an 8 dB SPL reduction in broadband noise and a 22 dB reduction in peak amplitude for the 2nd resonant mode. Indications of shear flow lofting effects could not be studied within any of the configurations tested. Lofting effect testing would have required flow field visualization of the cavity trailing edge region. Dynamic pressure measurements at a location near the cavity trailing edge did not detect the rod vortex shedding frequency, clearly. Because PIV results showed strong indication of vortex shedding, the lack of vortex shedding frequency data was attributed to the dynamic pressure transducer being located a far distance of 44 rod diameters downstream of the rod location. All airfoil test configurations showed evidence of deflections to the cavity leading edge oblique shock wave. The mechanisms of the deflection were the airfoil trailing edge shocks interacting with the cavity leading edge shock.

Current commonly use viscosity measurement techniques cannot be used for all types of fluids. For fluids in the under cooled region a new method of measuring the viscosity is required. A process of viscosity measurement, by measuring the speed of droplet coalescence in a microgravity environment, was developed. This paper analyses validation experiments performed on the International Space Station. Four experiments were analyzed. Two of the experiments provided results consistent with the known value for the viscosity. One of the experiments did not provide sufficient data for analysis. The final experiment had possible errors due to the experimental setup. The resulting data from these experiments demonstrated that the method is feasible. However, more experiments are needed to fully verify the process.

Modifications were made to the turbulent channel flow facility to allow for fully developed rough quasi-2D Poiseuille flow with flow injection through one surface and flow suction through the opposing surface. The combination of roughness and flow injection is designed to be analogous to the flow field over a thermal protection system which produces ablative pyrolysis gases during ablation. It was found that the additional momentum through the surface acted to reduce skin friction to a point below smooth-wall behavior. This effect was less significant with increasing Reynolds number. It was also found that the momentum injection modified the wake region of the flow.

No description available.

This thesis describes the design, assembly, and test of the FTDS-K, a new device in the Boundary Layer Data System (BLDS) family of flight data acquisition systems. The FTDS-K provides high-frequency, high-gain data acquisition capability for up to two pressure sensors and an additional three low-frequency pressure sensors. Development of the FTDS-K was separated into a core module, specialized analog subsystem, and practical testing of the FTDS-K in a flow measurement mission. The core module combines an nRF52840-based microcontroller module, switching regulator, microSD card, real-time clock, temperature sensor, and trio of pressure sensors to provide the same capabilities as previous-generation BLDS-P devices. An expansion header is included in the core module to allow additional functionality to be added via daughter boards. An analog signal chain comprised of two-stage amplification and fourth-order active antialiasing filters was implemented as a daughter board to provide an AC-coupled end-to-end gain of 7,500 and a DC-coupled end-to-end gain of 50. This arrangement was tested in a wind tunnel to demonstrate that sensors with a full-scale range of 103 kPa can be used to reliably discriminate between laminar and turbulent flows based on pressure fluctuation differences on the order of tens of Pa. A combination of wind-off correction and band-filtering was used to reduce the effect of inherent and induced electrical noise, while two-sensor correlation was tested and shown to be effective at removing certain types of noise. Total power consumption for the FTDS-K in a representative mission is 208 mW, which translates to an operational endurance of 9 hours with 2 AAA LiFeS2 cells at -40°C.

California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo is currently working towards developing a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) database for future code validation efforts. Cal Poly will complete a wind tunnel test on the Advanced Model for Extreme Lift and Improved Aeroacoustics (AMELIA) in the National Full-Scale Aerodynamics Complex (NFAC) 40 foot by 80 foot wind tunnel at NASA Ames Research Center in the summer of 2011. The development of two measurement techniques is discussed in this work, both with the objective of making measurements on AMELIA for CFD validation. First, the work on the application of the Fringe-Imaging Skin Friction (FISF) technique to AMELIA is discussed. The FISF technique measures the skin friction magnitude and direction by applying oil droplets on a surface, exposing them to flow, measuring their thickness, and correlating their thickness to the local skin friction. The technique has the unique ability to obtain global skin friction measurements. A two foot, nickel plated, blended wing section test article has been manufactured specifically for FISF. The model is illuminated with mercury vapor lamps and imaged with a Canon 50D with a 546 nm bandpass filter. Various tests are applied to the wing in order to further characterize uncertainties related with the FISF technique. Human repeatability has uncertainties of ±2.3% of fringe spacing and ±2.0° in skin friction vector direction, while image post processing yields ±25% variation in skin friction coefficient. A method for measuring photogrammetry uncertainty is developed. The effect of filter variation and test repeatability was found to be negligible. A validation against a Preston tube was found to have 1.8% accuracy. Second, the validation of a micro flow measurement device is investigated. Anemometers have always had limited capability in making near wall measurements, driving the design of new devices capable of measurements with increased wall proximity. Utilizing a thermocouple boundary layer rake, wall measurements within 0.0025 inches of the surface have been made. A Cross Correlation Rake (CCR) has the advantage of not requiring calibration but obtaining the same proximity and resolution as the thermocouple boundary layer rake. The flow device utilizes time of flight measurements computed via cross correlation to calculate wall velocity profiles. The CCR was designed to be applied to AMELIA to measure flow velocities above a flap in a transonic flow regime. The validation of the CCR was unsuccessful. Due to the fragile construction of the CCR, only one data point at 0.10589 inches from the surface was available for validation. The subsonic wind tunnel’s variable frequency drive generated noise which could not be filtered or shielded, requiring the use of a flow bench for validation testing. Since velocity measurements could not be made in the flow bench, a comparison of a fast and slow velocity was made. The CCR was not able to detect the difference between the two flow velocities. Currently, the CCR cannot be applied on AMELIA due to the unsuccessfully validation of the device.